I agree. Managers (especially higher they go) should get out of production code. That said, they should be technically very skilled to be able to make tough cal

I agree. Managers (especially higher they go) should get out of production code. That said, they should be technically very skilled to be able to make tough calls, people and technical. Companies should have two ladders. IC ladder and management ladder. Where companies fail is that they make the IC ladder less about actual work and more about documents, RFCs and 1-pagers and other nonsense. They start measuring productivity by these docs instead of actually building something, thus setting perverse incentives for a promotion. Docs, RFCs, designs are all means to an end, not an end unto itself.